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Salonika, 1940. To the bustle of tavernas and the smell of hashish, a secret war is taking shape. In the backrooms of barbers, envelopes change hands, and in the Club de Salonique the air is thick with whispers.
Costa Zannis is the city’s dashing chief detective – a man with contacts high and low, in the Balkans and beyond. And as unknown ships and British ‘travel writers’ trickle through the port, he is a man very much in demand. Having helped defeat Italy in the highlands of Macedonia, Zannis returns to a city holding its breath. Mussolini’s forces have retreated – for now – but German sights are fixed firmly on the region. And as the situation in Germany worsens, Zannis becomes involved in an audacious plot – smuggling Jews to Istanbul, through the back door of Europe. The British hear he can penetrate the continent’s closed borders, and soon Zannis is embroiled in the resistance, and in a reckless love affair that could jeopardise everything.
With a remarkable cast of operatives, SPIES OF THE BALKANS is a brilliant espionage novel from Alan Furst.
Costa Zannis is the city’s dashing chief detective – a man with contacts high and low, in the Balkans and beyond. And as unknown ships and British ‘travel writers’ trickle through the port, he is a man very much in demand. Having helped defeat Italy in the highlands of Macedonia, Zannis returns to a city holding its breath. Mussolini’s forces have retreated – for now – but German sights are fixed firmly on the region. And as the situation in Germany worsens, Zannis becomes involved in an audacious plot – smuggling Jews to Istanbul, through the back door of Europe. The British hear he can penetrate the continent’s closed borders, and soon Zannis is embroiled in the resistance, and in a reckless love affair that could jeopardise everything.
With a remarkable cast of operatives, SPIES OF THE BALKANS is a brilliant espionage novel from Alan Furst.
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Reviews
The spy writer Alan Furst's mastery of the passions and politics of the Second World War is again in thrilling evidence here.
Furst is surely a unique voice and talent in the mystery field
A wonderfully atmospheric and satisfying book
This is a brilliant book and highly recommended. Furst's novel set in 1940s Salonika is a wonderful, captivating, spy thriller with a keen sense of place and history.